Product shot of a 500 mg bottle of TranQuility, a concentrated bath salt apparently being used by some to get high.Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger

Deutsche Bank AG financier Brian Mulligan spoke of using so-called bath salts stimulants and appeared paranoid days before a violent run-in with Los Angeles police, according a recording released by the police union.

Two days before the May incident, the Hollywood banker told a Glendale police officer he believed people were following him, possibly by helicopter, according to the recording. Mulligan said he had used bath salts, a paranoia-inducing stimulant, about 20 times and as recently as two weeks earlier.

“I know this is going to sound crazy, but I feel like there are people following me,” Mulligan told an officer at the department’s headquarters. “I feel like there was a chopper. Do you hear a chopper?”

The bank executive has filed an administrative claim seeking as much as $50 million in damages against Los Angeles, alleging officers beat and illegally detained him on May 15. The claim is a necessary step before filing a lawsuit.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League released the recording and transcript to defend the officers involved in the incident, without saying how they were obtained. Mulligan’s conversation with Glendale, California, police was taped and later turned over to Los Angeles authorities, said Glendale police spokesman Thomas Lorenz, who confirmed the accuracy.

There was no trace of bath salts or other intoxicants in Mulligan’s system when he was tested at a hospital after the beating, according to his attorney, Louis R. Miller.

‘Beating Case’
“This is a beating case,” Miller said yesterday in a telephone interview. “He was severely, horrifically beaten. The police union that put out that press release and so forth, they’re just trying to make my client look bad.”

The City Attorney’s office hasn’t brought charges against him, according to Frank Mateljan, a spokesman.

Mulligan specializes in financing for Hollywood film and TV studios and has participated in deals including Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer Inc.’s $500 million credit facility announced in February. He joined Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank in 2009 and previously was chairman of Brooknol Advisors LLC, an entertainment adviser and investment firm. Before that he had senior roles at Seagram Co., Universal Pictures and Fox.

Bath salts, synthetic stimulants that may include mephedrone and methylone, can cause paranoia and hallucinations, according to WebMD.com.

Mulligan was forcibly subdued in May after he took a fighting stance and charged officers who approached after seeing him attempt to enter moving vehicles in the city’s Highland Park neighborhood, Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Andy Neiman said at the time.

Second Encounter
The same officers had questioned Mulligan about two hours earlier after responding to citizen calls that a man was trying to get into occupied autos in the drive-through lane of a fast- food restaurant nearby, Neiman said. The complaint against Los Angeles says Mulligan will require reconstructive surgery and psychological care that may cost as much as $1 million.

The Glendale officer urged Mulligan to stop using bath salts, warning him the effects worsen with repeated use.

“I guarantee you that if you continue using that stuff it will change who you are and it will destroy your family,” the officer said. “You will stop being who you are and you will become something totally different.”